A FIELD GUIDE TO AMERICAN PIZZA

TRAVEL THE USA, TRY EVERY REGION’S VARIATION

Pizza was born in Naples but has become far more widespread in America than Italy. Consistently among the nation’s most popular foods, it can be found in nearly every town and city. Besides popularity, the United States rules in variety, with many unique geographic takes. A few are dramatically different from the mainstream notion, like Chicago- style deepdish, while other regional differences are subtle. Some regions even claim nearly identical pizzas as their own distinct creations: Pennsylvania’s Old Forge- style sounds hyper- local but is very close to both Buffalo- and Detroit- style. On top of all this, there are offbeat regional ways to eat pizza: on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, it is normal to dip slices in Catalina dressing, while in many pockets of the nation, locals do the same with ranch. In Colorado, it is normal to pour honey on the crust when eating Rocky Mountain- style “Ugly Pizza.”

While most regions fiercely defend a particular style, at wildly popular Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco, former World Pizza Champion Tony Gemignani embraces the differences. His restaurant features seven different ovens burning coal, wood, gas and electricity, from 550 to 1,000 degrees, all so he can offer truly authentic versions of nine regional styles: New Haven, California, New York, NYC Sicilian, “Grandma” ( Long Island, N. Y.), Detroit, St. Louis, New Haven and Trenton ( N. J.) tomato pies. He predicts Detroit- style will boom and told me that the traditional New York- style I grew up on was getting harder to find. If you love pizza, these are the major American styles, and some great places to try them:

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